Every time patients interact with the healthcare system, either at a physician's office, emergency room, or medical facility, they are required to repeat the same exhaustive list of demographic, insurance and medical information. In fact, patients are usually required to recite this information multiple times while being interviewed by different staff at the same medical facility. This is inefficient and costly: approximately $100 per patient per visit of wasted clerical, nursing and physician time. In addition, the omission and transcription errors that inevitably occur are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality (98,000 patients per year in the U.S., as reported in the 1998 Institute of Medicine Study).
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Medical Information Systems (MIS) have held out the promise of improving the above situation. However, sizable up front costs for software and hardware, ongoing annual licensing fees, fear of choosing the “wrong” system and uncertain returns on investment (ROI) have made cash-strapped medical facilities and physician groups wary of adopting new technologies.
In addition, even when medical information is stored in electronic form, it is usually unavailable to actually help treat patients. This is because health information system vendors target distinct market segments: large medical centers, community hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and individual physicians/physician groups, and the various systems don't “talk” to one another. Furthermore, even if two hospitals in the same city use the exact same medical information system, unless they are part of the same health system and the health system has an integrated information system, there is usually no way to transfer information from one facility to the other. The situation is further complicated by the fact that each transfer of information requires the documented consent of the patient.
The financial impact of the aforementioned inefficiencies is enormous: $100 per visit multiplied by 200,000,000 office visits and 80,000,000 surgeries and procedures in the U.S. per year represents a $28 billion dollar problem.
Because of the convergence of a number of factors: (a) reduced reimbursement to physicians and healthcare facilities, (b) a renewed interest in cost-cutting and efficiency, and (c) a critical number of patients, physicians and hospitals with Internet access, a web-based medical information solution is now feasible. Furthermore, two catalysts: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and a severe, world-wide, nursing shortage, have acted to speed the adoption of technologies that free physicians and nurses from time-consuming, inefficient, clerical work.
Thus, there is presently a need for web-based method for sharing healthcare information between patients and various healthcare providers.